Christmas

Well Christmas is over now so here's the recap.

Thursday evening we went to my grandparents house and had supper with all of the family then opened presents (which is really money for most of us). Then we went back to my parents house to open all of our presents. It's so nice being to spend time with them because we don't get to very often. Here's a pic from the night.

Friday we just went to Brandon's parents house to have dinner and open presents. We lounged around the house that evening and it felt so good to be able to relax for a while!

Brandon's brother, sister-in law and the girls

Brandon, his brother and Mom

Me & my nieces

Me & Nora

Nora again...she loves having her pic taken. :)

Brandon's mom got a GPS...

Then a Wii!! As you can tell she wasn't expecting it!

Yesterday was the final Christmas gathering at my other grandparents house. We all ate dinner, opened presents, and played dirty bingo. I ended up coming home with what I had brought. ;)

And I got my meet my new baby cousin Addison Grace, born 12-18!! Here's a few snapshots I got of her.

My cousin Kyla holding her.

My mom was feeding her.

My brother thought he'd get in the picture.

Just Me and Addison...

Being around her definitely made me even more exciting about trying to have a baby!! :)

Sad day at home

Yesterday I woke up to my husband telling me he had bad news...his grandma had died late Saturday night. I was immediately filled with tears. She had been in the nursing home for a while and we all knew she would be going very soon so it wasn't a complete shock but it still isn't easy knowing we won't be going to visit her anymore. We actually hadn't went to see her since Thanksgiving but it was hard then seeing her how she was. The services are Wednesday and I know that day will not be a good one for me. Brandon has always been good at controlling his emotions and I never have been. I know she's definitely in a better place and is alot happier because we could see she was suffering the longer time went on. Just not a good start the holidays...

4 Months

We've been married 4 months today!

And I guess I should tell everyone we've kind of started to try to have a baby. By kind of I mean we're not really pushing it hard but we aren't preventing either. Time is flying by!!

1st Snow

Monday we woke up to the first snow of the year!! By the end of the day it had all melted already but we just got more this morning. It's beginning to feel like Christmas now!!

Puppy party

We had the puppy birthday party last Thursday evening. All of them got along for the most part except for Lily which was the only female we had. Every time the other dogs would go near her she would start barking at them. We're thinking maybe she was just intimidated because there were so many around, she's usually fine when just around 1 or 2. Also, Marly was definitely more shy than usual but I'm thinking he was frightened since the rest are so much bigger than him. Overall it was a fun night and great to see them all together again!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Just thought I'd post a pic of our tree this year. It's not a great picture and I'm gonna try to get one showing the lights better but you get the idea. It's all about green this year!

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Marly's 1st birthday was on Tuesday so we're getting him and Willow together with all of the other puppies from the litter tonight for a little "party." I'll try to get pics and share tomorrow...I'm excited to see them all together again!

Movie night

Sunday night was Brandon's turn to pick out the movies we watched. He got "17 Again" and "Observe and Report". I really liked the first one. It's a nice family movie and has a good message. I may end up buying it. The other one was a different story. It was basically the same thing as "Mall Cop." I definitely don't need to watch it again.

Thanksgiving Recap

I'm finally getting around to my Thanksgiving recap...and recipe sharing! We had Brandon's side of the family over for dinner so there were 8 people in our little house. It actually went very well and the food was delicous!! Brandon did the turkey and I made pumpkin cheesecake bars and sweet potato casserole. We later went to visit his grandma at the nursing home. She's not doing very well and they've called in hospice so we wanted to see her since her days are probably numbered. Later that evening we went to my parent's house for supper. It was a nice day but very tiring...I don't know that I'd like to have holidays at my house every year.

Here's the 2 recipes you've been waiting for!

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake
(Source: Kraft)

Ingredients
25 Nabisco Ginger Snaps, finely crushed (about 1-1/2 cups) (I actually used some broken graham crackers...probably didn't taste the same)
1/2 cup finely chopped Planters Pecans
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
4 pkg. (8 oz. each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup sugar, divided
1 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
Dash ground cloves

Directions
Heat oven to 325°F

Mix crumbs, nuts and butter; press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of 13x9-inch pan.
Beat cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar and vanilla with mixer until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each just until blended. Remove 1-1/2 cups batter. Stir remaining sugar, pumpkin and spices into remaining batter.
Spoon half the pumpkin batter into crust; top with spoonfuls of half the plain batter. Repeat layers; swirl with knife.
Bake 45 min. or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours.

It's delicous!!

(sorry about the half eaten pic, I had just remembered I needed to take one)

I actually saw the recipe for sweet potato casserole from a girl on the Project Wedding website and decided I would try it. It's different because instead of putting marshamallows on top you make a pecan topping. Let me tell you, it's way better this way!! I'll never do the marshmallows again.

Sweet Potato Casserole
(Source: brianne2009)

Ingredients
Filling
3 c sweet potatoes
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c butter
1/4 c evaporated milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Topping
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c flour
1 c pecans
1/3 c softened butter

Directions
Preheat oven to 350
Blend filling ingredients together and spread in baking dish
Stir topping together and spread on top of filling.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes

Forgot to take pic of this. :(

It's officially started!

The Christmas season has finally started! I will be changing my background soon and giving the weekend/Thanksgiving recap later on. Just wanted to say I'm so excited about Christmas!!

I'm so excited...and I just can't hide it!

Every year we always decorate for Christmas either the day after Thanksgiving or that weekend. We put all the decorations up and even go get the tree...get everything done in one day. Well....this year is different. Brandon has been hunting every weekend since deer season started and this weekend was no different. I was home alone (with the dogs) Sunday and getting very bored. I finally decided to put away all of the fall decorations and start putting up the Christmas decorations...I just couldn't wait!! Of course I couldn't go get the tree but I got everything else up inside all while watching "Christmas with the Kranks." I'm definitely getting into the spirit of Christmas a little early this year but it's my favorite time of year and I just couldn't wait to decorate.....after this weekend it'll all be more real (with the tree) and the Christmas season can officially start!!

Double Time

Last night for movie night I picked out 2 movies I wanted to watch...The Proposal & The Ugly Truth. I had been wanting to see these and since they were both available I snatched them up! They both were really good and I'll definitely be going out and buying them....if I don't get them for Christmas. ;) I highly recommend checking them out if you haven't already!!

3 Month Mark!

Sunday was our 3 month anniversary....already! Time has really been flying!

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Sunday Brandon picked out this movie for us to watch. We both liked it and I laughed quite a bit at the "past girlfriend." She was just hilarious to watch.

My great accomplishment

I started #86 on my list a couple weeks ago...a 1000 pc. puzzle. I had decided I wasn't going to spend a lot of money on one so I went to Catholic Charities and picked one up for 50 cents, can't beat that. I'd been working on it in the evenings and some on the weekends and finally finished it last night...I was so proud of myself when I put the final piece in!! Here's the finished product. (Note: there are a couple pieces missing b/c I had dropped them on the floor & before I found them the dogs had already started eating them so they weren't in any condition to be put in it)

TA-DA! (the pic needs flipped, sorry)

Fool's Gold

We chose to watch "Fool's Gold" last night for our new movie. I thought it was a pretty good movie but I think I need to watch it again tonight because last night I was doing a puzzle while trying to watch so I didn't exactly get to see everything. ;)

Post Wedding Chop

I finally went and had my hair cut off last Thursday night!! I highlighted it pretty heavy too so it looks blonde now. Here's my cousin and I at a wedding Saturday night.

Bad News Bears

Well we got some bad news last night. The house we're currently renting is being put up for sale. :( We have the chance to buy it so I guess we're going to start filling out loan applications but this really puts a damper on things. To add to it, the realtor is supposed to be calling to come measure the rooms and take pictures....are they kidding???!!! One of the spare rooms is a mess b/c after the wedding I just threw everything back in there..we don't even use the room so it's basically just storage. Now I have to actually make myself go in there and clean and organize everything so this dumb person can come in and measure. (No offense to any realtors) If we don't get approved by the bank to buy a house we're pretty much gonna be homeless...I do not want to have to go back and live with Brandon's parents....ugghh!

Obsessed

We watched our second movie we rented Sunday night, "Obsessed." This one was way better than the first one we watched. It is a drama about a girl who becomes obsessed over a man she works with and ends up causing a lot of problems with him and his family. I could definitely watch it again!

Covered Bridge Pics

I just realized that I never posted the pics I had taken at the Covered Bridge where I live. I took them two weeks ago when the trees were beautiful.

Fall Pics

Last week on my way home from work I decided I'd stop by the park and take a few pics before the leaves were gone. These are the three I got that were pretty good. I'm glad I got them when I did because it seems like most of the leaves are off the trees now. :(

Sunday Night Movie

We are started a tradition of watching a new movie every Sunday night. Last night I told DH he could choose what we watched...he came home with "Knowing" and "Obsessed." We ended up only watching "Knowing" and let me tell ya, I really don't need to watch it again. I'm just not into the freaky, kinda weird movies. I was waiting for something bad to happen every time the "white faced" guys would come. The ending was definitely not what I expected. I guess we might watch "Obsessed" tonight.

4th Book

I've already finished my fourth book! It's the 2nd one in the Shopaholic series....Shopaholic Takes Manhattan. After reading this one I now realize that they also took parts of this book and put in the movie. It continues on the life of Rebecca Bloomwood and how she continues to deal with her "shopping" problem. I'll definitely be getting the next book....Shopaholic Ties the Knot!

Woof-o-ween

I finally found the dogs costumes I had gotten last year. Willow is gonna be a witch and Marly will be a football player. I dressed them up this weekend just to see what they were going to look like...adorable as usual! We're just gonna stay home Saturday night and hand out candy but they'll still be fit for the occasion!

Dinner & a Movie

Sunday night we decided to order pizza and rent a movie. I had been wanting to see this for a while and Brandon said I could choose what we watched so of course I grabbed it. When the very first line was said I freaked out.....this movie was based on my book I had just read!! Ok so I should've put 2 & 2 together way before this but I didn't...and of course thru the whole movie I kept commenting on what she "should" be doing next. Like many books made movies this one was definitely not exactly like the book was so it was a little frustrating at times. All in all I thought it was a good movie and probably would've like it better had I not read the book before. ;)

3rd Book

I've finished my 3rd book already. It is the 1st of 3 that I bought together. It's about a girl who is obsessed with shopping and finds herself in major debt with her credit cards and also her bank. You'll just have to read the book to find out what happens. It's a good one!

Say Cheese!

I finally got me a new Point & Shoot camera. It's a Canon Powershot SD1100 IS and is such an upgrade from my old Canon. I've taken a few pictures on it already (just got it in last night) and I love it! It's real expensive new from Amazon but I found a nice used one on Ebay for around $100!

Here's some pics we took last night. My husband thought it would be fun to take some of deer that were on tv. lol!